More than 600.000 vacationers were left stranded when the 178-year-old travel company, Thomas Cook, announced Monday, with some of its flights still in the air, that it was going out of business. Thomas Cook was no ordinary tour company, it was one of the world’s oldest. Under the codename: Operation Matterhorn, the British government is now leading the biggest peacetime repatriation in British history to get 150.000 Britons home. It is unclear whether citizens of other countries could expect similar help. The company’s collapse put also 21.000 jobs at risk. It announced its closing after negotiations to obtain $250 million, in emergency financing fell apart over the weekend. Analysts said Thomas Cook, struggling with a debt pile approaching $2.5 billion had failed to adjust to the changing times. But the company also suffered from a number of factors beyond its control, particularly Brexit, which has cut the value of the pound.
Source:
Tom Hanks: Cast Away by Robert Zemeckis, 2000
nytimes.com, Ceylan Yeginsu and Michael Wolgelenter, 23.09.2009
telegraph.co.uk, Chris Graham, 24.09.2019
reuters.com, Keith Weir, 22.09.2019